Antagonista Manifesto

"When injustice becomes law,resistance becomes duty."

"There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!" -- Mario Savio

It has to start somewhere. It has to start sometime. What better place than here? What better time than now?

Welcome to Anything that defies my sense of reason.... Class antagonism of a New World Order.

....because words will always retain their power, offer the means to meaning and, for those who'll listen, the enunciation of truth, and because being sleepwalked into fascism is not an option.

To confront ideas that radically alter our perception of the world is one of life's most unsettling yet liberating experiences.

Throw away your ambitions for membership to the socially acceptable position of wage slave.

"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; the right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers." -- Article 19

Words of Wisdom

"Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders…and millions have been killed because of this obedience… Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves… (and) the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem." - Howard Zinn

"If the truth can be told in a way so as to be understood, it will be believed." - Terence McKenna

"The eternal fight is not many battles fought on one level but one great battle fought on many different levels." - The Antagonist

"Besides, I think it's time to abolish politicians entirely and let everbody participate in self-government via Internet. We needed representatives in the 18th Century, because we couldn't all go to Washington. Meanwhile, times changed and our "representatives" have sold us out to the corporations, as we in the majority party all agree, whatever our differences in other matters. And we don't need "representatives" anymore; we have the Net technology to represent ourselves." - Robert Anton Wilson

"There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but, in the end, they always fall - think of it. Always." - Mohandas Gandhi

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in times of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy. Cowardice asks the question: Is it safe? Expedience asks the question: Is it politic? Vanity asks the question: Is it popular? But conscience asks the question: Is it right? And a time comes when man must take a stand that’s neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it’s right.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

"Do not ask who I am and do not ask me to remain the same. More than one person, doubtless like me, writes in order to have no face." — Michel Foucault

"You're obliged to pretend respect for people and institutions you think absurd. You live attached in a cowardly fashion to moral and social conventions you despise, condemn, and know lack all foundation. It is that permanent contradiction between your ideas and desires and all the dead formalities and vain pretenses of your civilization which makes you sad, troubled and unbalanced. In that intolerable conflict you lose all joy of life and all feeling of personality, because at every moment they suppress and restrain and check the free play of your powers. That's the poisoned and mortal wound of the civilized world." — Octave Mirbeau

"We have given away far too many freedoms in order to be free. Now it's time to take some back." - John le Carre

“We need to work like the Zapatistas do, like ants who go everywhere no matter which political party the other belongs to. Zapatistas proved people can work together in spite of differences.” - Anna Esther Cecena of the FZLN (Mexican support committee of the Zapatistas)

"Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance." - Albert Einstein

"The problem with always being a conformist is that when you try to change the system from within, it's not you who changes the system; it's the system that will eventually change you." - Immortal Technique

"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed." - Stephen Bantu Biko

"An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it." - Mohandas Gandhi

"The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie -- deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought". - John F. Kennedy

"There is no general legal duty to assist the police or to obey police instructions." - Rice v Connolly [1966] 2 QB 414

"All great truths begin as blasphemies." - George Bernard Shaw

"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence." - Albert Einstein

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you... then you win." - Mohandas Gandh

"Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." - George Orwell

"No one understood better than Stalin that the true object of propaganda is neither to convince nor even to persuade, but to produce a uniform pattern of public utterance in which the first trace of unorthodox thought immediately reveals itself as a jarring dissonance." - Leonard Schapiro

“If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.” - Benjamin Franklin

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." - Arthur Schopenhauer

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." - Dr. Martin Luther King

"There is no act too small, no act too bold. The history of social change is the history of millions of actions, small and large, coming together at points in history and creating a power that governments cannot suppress." - Howard Zinn

"We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men." - George Orwell

"Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius-and a lot of courage-to move in the opposite direction." - Albert Einstein

"The power of accurate observation is often called cynicism by those who have not got it." - George Bernard Shaw

"To be governed is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the virtue nor the wisdom to do so. To be governed is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorised, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolised, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; And to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonoured. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality." - PJ Proudhon

"It's only subliminal if you don't notice it." - The Antagonist

Public Private Partnership

UK PLC Saving Banks

30 September 2005

A quick update on the Justice4Jean Campaign which has moved the official launch of the campaign to Monday 10th October 2005, 6.30pm, New Theatre, London School of Economics, Houghton St, WC1 (nearest tube Holborn).

The following information about the event was issued earlier today:

Dear friends,

As you will be aware, Jean's parents and brother have travelled thousands of miles to come to this country to find out the truth about what happened to their son and to demand justice.

Please find below details of the first public meeting of the Jean Charles de Menezes Family Campaign. It had to be moved from Conway Hall on 3rd Oct due to pressing legal engagements for the family but it will now be taking place on 10th October at the LSE.

This is an opportunity to show your solidarity and support to Jean's parents and family. They need to know the people of London and this country are with them

Please forward this to all email lists you have and encourage your family, friends and co-workers to attend.

I hope you join us for this public meeting and bring messages of support for the family.

On 22nd July, Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead by police at Stockwell tube. This meeting is the official campaign launch of the Jean Charles de Menezes Family Campaign. It is an opportunity for the people of London to show support for the Menezes family hear about the next steps for the campaign for truth and justice.

28 September 2005

Teargas and hooded paramilitary gendarmes of an anti-terrorist unit descending from five Puma helicopters herald the introduction by the French authorities of a rather novel approach to strikebreaking:

French soldiers stormed a car ferry in the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday to recapture it from about 50 striking workers who had seized the vessel in protest at plans to privatise their ferry company.

...

Media said the workers who seized the ferry could face up to 20 years in prison, saying the law treats seizing the ferry in a manner similar to the hijacking of a plane. Police said they had detained the protesters for questioning.

...

Financial difficulties coupled with government plans to seek an injection of private capital into the 155-year-old company have led to a series of strikes since last year, bringing ferry traffic to a halt between mainland France and Corsica.

Three people were injured during scuffles between protesters and police at the Corsican port city of Bastia during the night. Workers are angry over sell-off plans that could lead to the loss of 400 jobs, and have blocked southern French oil ports.

The Antagonist hopes readers are sitting very comfortably indeed prior to reading this...

Gov. Kathleen Blanco was asked yesterday about some of the 500,000 Louisiana residents in the path of Hurricane Rita that are choosing not to leave their homes, sit in 12 hours of traffic and die on the highways when the hurricane hits.

In response Governor Blanco said:

"If some people insist on not going … perhaps they should write their Social Security number on their arms in indelible ink."

A couple of quotes via Team 8 Forum and a little more analysis of Peter Power's 7 July statement:

London bombs terror attack

"A week [before 7 July], [Shehzad Tanweer] had hired a red Nissan Micra for the journey, using his own name and credit card. The car was already overdue to be returned to the car hire company. Tanweer didn’t care, for he had no intention of returning it."

"Two bottles of peroxide explosive encased in nails were found in a bag under the front passenger seat of a silver Nissan Micra which three of the bombers had used to travel to Luton on the day of the attacks."

They could have released CCTV footage from 7 July and ended all the speculation and debate in one fell swoop but no, nearly three months, 3,000 plus witness statements and 80,000 CCTV tapes later, out floats a bit of footage of a shopping trip to London of just three of the alleged 7 July bombers.

Why hasn't footage from 7 July been released? Does it exist? If it does exist why isn't it being released? If it doesn't exist, why not?

We are told of the meticulous level of detail and planning that went into organising 7 July yet the only similarity between the Dummy Dummy-Run journey and the alleged journey of the alleged bombers on 7 July is the fact that the alleged bombers travelled by Thameslink train from Luton to Kings Cross.

The BBC reports the main points of the Dummy Dummy-Run as:

Sidique Khan and Tanweer meet Lindsay at Luton station around 0810 BST

The trio buy tickets and catch a train to King's Cross

The men arrive at King's Cross at 0855 BST and are also seen at Baker Street at midday

The bombers leave King's Cross at 1250 BST and arrive back in Luton at 1340 BST

In the Dummy Dummy-Run the alleged bombers met at 8:10am at Luton Thameslink station so they obviously weren't meticulously rehearsing the catching of the 7:40am train that we are told they caught on 7 July. i.e. the same 7.40am train from Luton a) didn't run on the morning of 7 July and, b) couldn't have got them to Kings Cross in time to catch any of the trains affected that morning.

In the Dummy Dummy-Run the alleged bombers arrived at Kings Cross Thameslink at 8:55am, five minutes after the bombs supposedly went off on 7 July so they obviously weren't meticulously rehearsing simultaneous explosions on the Underground trains at precisely 8.50am.

So what exactly were these guys rehearsing? How to catch a random Thameslink train from Luton to Kings Cross perhaps?

No wonder the police are so keen to learn more of the activities of the alleged 7/7 bombers in London on the day of the Dummy Dummy-Run.

The Dummy Dummy-Run is little more than a distraction from the complete lack of evidence relating to the very real and actual events that resulted in the deaths of 56 people on 7 July. Why the big secrecy over evidence from the day itself?

To some degree, Peter Power was very open with his initial comments aired on Radio 5 on the evening of 7 July when he first revealed that he had been conducting the operation. During the interview he did even sound a little alarmed that the simultaneous bombs of his long planned security rehearsal had actually occurred at the same time he was rehearsing them.

Perhaps this admission on the same day as the devastating events on the Underground was the open acknowledgement of an ex-anti-terror operative of forces at work in the midst of his operation that morning far greater than that of an ex-Scotland Yarder. If outside organisations were involved at that level Power would be powerless to say so and has perhaps encoded his level of involvement with the one highly visible event of that day - the diverted and exploded Number 30 bus - simply by not mentioning it. Power only ever refers to the train incidents in his original Radio 5 interview, never to the exploded bus and while not mentioning the bus Power also tells us in a later written statement that, "one scenario in particular, was very similar to real time events."

As the rumour, speculation and random footage loosely linked to 7 July continues to materialise while evidence from the day itself is either non-existent or highly questionable, still the question must be, "WHO BOMBED LONDON?"

21 September 2005

"John Ellis Bush, known as 'Jebby,' was arrested Friday morning and charged with public intoxication and resisting arrest. Evidently Jebby was having too much fun there in Austin,' writes Spin Dentist, also noting that there's no truth to the rumor that the appropriately aged Jebby might now sign up for the military..."

"Several members of the Bush family have received considerable press converage for perceived or abusive use of alcohol and other substances, including George W. Bush's DUI, Jenna and Barbara Bush's underage drinking, and Jebby's sister Noelle arrest for forging a Xanax prescription."

Six images are available in the News Centre. The first three images show the sequence of train movements prior to and including the explosion at Aldgate. The remaining three show the sequence of train movements prior to and including the explosion at Edgware Road. [TFL]

Using Trakernet, a computerized system that monitors trains on some lines, controllers could see that as Train 204 traveled between Liverpool Street and approached Aldgate, it came to a sudden stop with pink lines on their screens indicating a power surge. [International Herald Tribune]

Pink Lines = Power surge.

The first bomb to detonate was on the Liverpool Street train soon after it left for Aldgate on the Circle line, seconds before the others. The blast tripped out the power system, visible in the control room. [WikiNews]

And:

The Edgware Road train, leaving for Paddington and also on the Circle, exploded opposite a train coming from the other direction, making people think at first that it was a derailment. [WikiNews]

TRACKERNET 1: Circle line Train #204-Eastbound Heading from Liverpool Street to Aldgate. Sequence of train movements prior to and including the explosion at Aldgate. [Source: TFL]

TRACKERNET 2: Circle line Train #204-Eastbound Heading from Liverpool Street to Aldgate. Sequence of train movements prior to and including the explosion at Aldgate. [Source: TFL]

TRACKERNET 3: Circle line Train #204-Eastbound Heading from Liverpool Street to Aldgate. Sequence of train movements prior to and including the explosion at Aldgate. [Source: TFL]

TRACKERNET 4: Circle line Train #216-Westbound. Heading from Edgware Road to Paddington. Sequence of train movements prior to and including the explosion at Edgware Road. [Source: TFL]

TRACKERNET 5: Circle line Train #216-Westbound. Heading from Edgware Road to Paddington. Sequence of train movements prior to and including the explosion at Edgware Road. [Source: TFL]

TRACKERNET 6: Circle line Train #216-Westbound. Heading from Edgware Road to Paddington. Sequence of train movements prior to and including the explosion at Edgware Road. [Source: TFL]

20 September 2005

Interesting show on BBC1 tonight about derailed trains that The Antagonist is hoping might help make a little sense of the train schematics released for 7 July, as shown below.

Derailed, BBC1Tue 20 Sep, 9:00 pm - 10:00 pm 60mins

A powerful and moving film looking at the continuing battle for justice in the aftermath of the October 1999 Ladbroke Grove rail disaster.

Thirty one people were killed and numerous more families were torn apart by the crash when two trains collided on the same piece of track. Were these lives lost for the sake of profit? This dramatised reconstruction of real events reveals some shocking truths and poses questions that the rail industry, government and big business will find awkward to swallow.

The film follows a group of the victims' parents who have engaged themselves in a long, emotional hunt to discover and expose the truth of what really happened in the lead-up to the tragedy. Their sad but remarkable story is a testament to the strength and determination of the individual. [BBC1]

17 September 2005

Is it just The Antagonist or does Mr Blair, President Minister of the United Kingdom, seem as though he's under rather a little too much pressure and getting a little confused?

The Clarke/Blair barrage of their 'I believe's being the will of the masses continues with more pointless and stupid laws that won't prevent the UK Government from conducting their terrorist activities, nor the odd suicide bomber from conducting theirs. Free speech however, is greatly under threat.

Well, that could include such things as the murder of an INNOCENT Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Tube station all the way up to the killing of 25,000+ innocent Iraqis as supported, funded and conducted with the full approval of none other than Mr Tony Blair.

Ho ho ho. What a world of contradictions in which Tony B. and his ilk live.

The new crime is anything that can be vaguely construed to 'promote or encourage'' terrorism (e.g. US/UK foreign policy), something which starts a little closer to home for Mr Blair, as Mrs Blair let us know in June 2002 while speaking about Palestinians at a charity event in London, 18 June, 2002.

"As long as young people feel they have got no hope but to blow themselves up you are never going to make progress."

Sorry Tony, no more five-times-a-night for you, big-boy, until you change the Middle East policy.

The very next day, and before mis-describing Cherie's sentiments, hubby said:

"First of all, I hope that no-one mis-describes her sentiments, or mine, or anyone else's. Everybody in this situation feels nothing but the deepest sympathy for the people that have lost their lives in the latest terrorist attack.

Terrorism offers absolutely no future, no way out of this process whatever, but of course it is true that we need to make sure that there is hope for the future, and the hope lies in the political process taking the place of the extremists, the terrorists, the suicide bombers, and I am quite sure that is what Cherie was saying, it is what everyone who has looked at this problem knows is the case."

"Terrorism" (Tony Blair definition: "the killing of innocent people, erm, deliberately") does, however, seem to work quite well for Mr Blair's government and performs just as well as it ever did in being the single fastest way of transferring public money to the private enterprises and individuals who manufacture all the tools of terrorism used for the killing of innocent people.

In January of 2004, Jenny Tonge got herself in rather a lot of trouble, and was sacked by Charles Kennedy, for speaking freely (how, er, 'Liberal') and suggesting that there might be some reason why youngsters feel that undertaking a suicide bombing is the only viable option left to them:

"This particular brand of terrorism, the suicide bomber, is truly born out of desperation.

"Many, many people criticise, many, many people say it is just another form of terrorism, but I can understand and I am a fairly emotional person and I am a mother and a grandmother.

I think if I had to live in that situation, and I say this advisedly, I might just consider becoming one myself.

"And that is a terrible thing to say."

That it may be, but it is certainly far less terrible to say such a thing than it is to be responsible for the large-scale killing of innocent people like Mr Blair. The same large-scale killing of innocent people which he has on his mind, if not his conscience, as he admitted in a television interview yesterday.

"It's the killing of innocent people, um, deliberately... innocent civilians. When people go on a bus or the Underground or in a cafe, bar or restaurant and kill as many innocent people as they possibly can quite deliberately, I think in practical terms most reasonable people have no reasonable difficulty with this definition.

Dropping bombs from the skies for a few years in a never-ending pursuit of creation (what was), destruction (what is) and rebirth (what will be), apparently, is not terrorism. Those whose words 'promote or encourage' opposing acts of terrorism, apparently, is greater than the very real and actual terrorism of those whose terrorism allows them to dictate the laws of the country and the world.

With that paradigm, the luxury of those wielding the biggest and most destructive weapons of mass destruction and labelling individual acts of opposition as 'terrorism' is over.

With that paradigm, the luxury of those wielding the biggest and most destructive weapons of mass destruction to almost-invisibly kill innocents on a scale suicide bombers can only dream of is over.

With that paradigm, the transparency of the real terrorists, those who regularly kill innocent people, erm, deliberately, is now truly international.

10 September 2005

So asks the BBC in light of Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, the head of Britain's security service, MI5, stating that the 60-or-so million people in this country who aren't fully-paid up members of Al Qaeda should have even more of their essential civil liberties removed in the continued war on an abstract noun. Of course, quite how one views these things is all about context and perspective so let's endeavour to introduce some of each of these qualities by having a look at a couple of 'highpoints' in the career of Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller.

Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up as it flew over Lockerbie, Scotland, on December 21, 1988, when 12–16 oz of plastic explosive was detonated in its forward cargo hold, triggering a sequence of events that led to the rapid destruction of the aircraft. Winds of 100 knots scattered passengers and debris along an 88-mile corridor over an area of 845 square miles. Two hundred and seventy people from 21 countries died, including 11 people on the ground. [FreeDictionary]

So, we can learn from this that Manningham-Buller had heavy involvement in an investigation into a devastating terrorist attack in the UK and that she didn't manage to expose that a key piece of evidence had been manufactured by the CIA. This suggests that Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller's heavy involvement in the investigation wasn't really much use in bringing the investigation to a judicious conclusion. Hardly grounds for promotion to the head of MI5, one would think. Or, if it is, there's a whole tranche of questions that need asking about the purpose of MI5. Only 20 years later does something vaguely resembling the truth of the Lockerbie bombing emerge and, still then, only when the conscience of an elderly ex-copper gets the better of him.

The question in relation to Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, her involvement in the rather redundant Lockerbie investigation and her recent comments must now be; should a person with such a dubious record of detecting the true causes of the terror around the world be tasked with removing the civil liberties of the population that she failed in the Lockerbie investigation 20 years ago?

While you're pondering that one, consider also the small matter of Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller's position as a senior liaison to the US intelligence community, working out of Washington, over the period of the first Persian Gulf War when the Bush klan first tried to rid the world, apparently, of Saddam Hussein.

"Why would this be an issue?" you might ask. Well, the CIA went to great lengths to empower Saddam Hussein back in the sixties so any offensives which the Bush father/son partnership, their administrations, and the CIA might wish to launch on the country and leadership that they themselves (and Don) engineered in the sixties, are immediately rendered far more questionable than the already incredibly questionable reasons for so doing.

To understand anything about Iraq, it is essential to understand that Iraq was described by Britain in 1947 as a, "stupendous source of strategic power, and one of the greatest material prizes in world history," and, “a vital prize for any power interested in world influence or domination.” It is also essential to understand that this "stupendous source of strategic power" passed from Ottoman rule to British hands during World War I and was then led by a British-appointed monarch whose job description was, "A king who will be content to reign but not govern.” This all worked very well until the British appointed monarch was overthrown by the restless locals in 1958 and replaced with a republic under Brigadier Abd al Karim Qasim.

Monarchy has never taken kindly to anyone that dares challenge their self-appointed divine right to rule, and being overthrown anywhere tends to stick in the craw of monarchy just a little. So, when the "vital prize for... world influence or domination" had been lost to a people's republic of neutralism and nationalism that had no use for monarchy or their interests, something had to be done by the conquering imperial forces to re-establish their global influence and domination.

In 1959 Baath party elements led by Saddam attempted to gun down Qasim, but failed. Saddam was wounded in the attempt (read: 'shot himself in the leg') and fled (hobbled?) to Syria and then Egypt - a considerable feat of border-crossing after having just attempted to assassinate the incumbent leader of the people's republic. Saddam was sentenced to death in absentia only returning to Iraq when his Baath party were in a position of power.

Bearing in mind the Lockerbie investigation-debacle and the recent history of Iraq that has been shaped by British and, more recently, American conquering forces who largely engineered Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, the involvement of Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller in both the Lockerbie investigation and the Iraq invasions of Bush Snr and Jnr, provides a high degree of insight into the nature of the person who now suggests citizens of the UK should be subjugated further by still greater losses of essential liberties.

Oh, how great this democracy of ours. How much do you value your rights?

Taken from the Justice4Jean web site, which appears to have staggered online without the requisite levels of publicity that you might think would surround a campaign for justice when an innocent man is executed by unknown 'authorities' on a London tube train:

On 22nd July, Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead by police at Stockwell tube as a result of the so-called “shoot-to-kill” policy. His family is seeking justice and the truth about why Jean Charles was killed.

This meeting is the first chance to hear Jean Charles’ family and their lawyers give a full account of the catalogue of errors surrounding Jean Charles’ death. The meeting will also provide an opportunity for the trade union movement and people committed to human rights to discuss how they can support the family’s campaign.

07 September 2005

The poor man worked himself up into such a frenzy he looked like he was going to spontaneously combust and explode in a not entirely dissimilar way to the suicide-bombers that consistently get him so excited.

Since that day, The Antagonist has been telling anyone who will listen that the BBC's increasingly more pronounced role as little more than the mouthpiece of MI5 government would result in the ousting of individuals with any degree of journalistic integrity from any positions of prominence. More specifically, The Antagonist has espoused the notion that John Humphrys' time of endeavouring to maintain journalistic integrity in a media climate that no longer allows such a luxury would, somehow, be drawing to a close in the very near future.

Lo-and-behold, what has been doing the rounds the last couple of days if not stories about Michael Grade's launch of an investigation into a speech which John Humphrys gave, some two months ago, to the Commercial Directors' Forum where Humphry's dared speak words much closer to the truth than the news media can allow?

John Humphrys would not be the first journalist to be hoisted by the petard of truth-seeking in journalism but, if Grade has any impact on Humphrys' esteemed position, the Today programme will be left with nothing more than a gaggle of presenters happy to share cosy evenings with the same politicians they are tasked with grilling in the public interest, a sycophantic trait to which Humphrys, to his considerable credit, did not succumb.

The first casualty of war is truth. If Grade's McCarthyistic witch-hunt against Humphrys succeeds, the lid on the coffin of British journalism will be one nail closer to being forever-sealed.

SCORES of British spies fear their cover is blown after they were named by a US website. It listed 121 alleged secret agents - including former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown. Some are understood to be serving intelligence officers based around the world.

...

Lawyers are looking at ways of taking the list off the net.

...

The site, which we are not naming, has long been a thorn in the side of the intelligence community for publishing secrets. This month it named another 74 alleged MI6 agents - on top of 116 in 1999.

The Antagonist isn't nearly quite so coy as the Daily Mirror with information that has been in the public domain for some time and points curious readers to John Young's excellent Cryptome and the lists of MI6 agents: one [13 May 1999], two [21 August 2005], and three [28 August 2005].

In case there was any doubt as to the authenticity of these lists, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office HM Diplomatic Service's Overseas Reference List of August 2005 lists many of the named officials, confirms their 2005 positions and stations, and is available as a PDF or Word document for ease of consumption.

Crown Prince Abdullah became King on Aug. 1, 2005, upon the death of his half brother, King Fahd. Fahd was 84. Abdullah is 81 and essentially has been the kingdom's leader since 1995, when Fahd was sidelined by a stroke. (AP Photo/Mandatory Credit:Christopher Morris/VII).

If you look very closely at the photo above, you can almost see the strings of Bush, Abdullah and company being operated by the Great Puppetmaster in the sky.

02 September 2005

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it."

- Abraham Lincoln

Young. Old. Black. White. Christian. Muslim. No homes. No clothes. No food. No Water. The promised-land of the free and the American way of life is in very dire trouble indeed.

Hurricane Katrina has left America in the midst of a desperate crisis on a multitude of levels as the disaster, listed for some time as one of the top disaster threats faced by the United States, has finally happened.

Once again, it is the innocent who suffer at the hands of State and Federal administrations who knew long in advance about the magnitude of the threat. They choose instead to spend tax dollars on killing more innocents in Iraq, simultaneously tossing the lives of millions of Americans to the mercy of imminent flooding. In this there is a message encoded for the American people from those who profess to protect them.

Hurricane Katrina has stripped millions of Americans of everything but their bodies and their lives. Martial Law has been imposed and thousands of enforcers have been sent to prevent those with no food, no water, and only the clothes they were swept away in from salvaging what little water, food and clothing they can pick out from the devastation.

Death tolls, much like the actual death tolls in Iraq, are conspicuously absent from the reports of the world's media, the majority of whom would rather focus on portraying the fundamental desperation of the basic human need for food, water and shelter as horrendous acts of 'looting' and 'crime'.

This media set-up, of course, paved the way nicely for Gee Dubya's sickly, staged condemnation of the 'lawlessness' that is nothing more than human attempts at survival when faced with horrific odds against that survival. Add to those horrific odds a government more interested in continuing to over-stretch its war efforts around the world than allowing its own people to eat and drink and, just maybe, a brief glimpse can be gained of what people attempting survival in the wake of Katrina are going through.

The global superpower that manifests itself all over the world as a conquering imperial force of destruction cannot use the considerable resources it ploughs into global domination to save its own people in their time of need.

The victims of Hurricane Katrina are, quite understandably, very, very unhappy at being left without food and water for four days in a way that 'disenfranchised' doesn't quite cover. They join the ever growing anti-Bush, anti-war throng of those that have lost faith in their government to act in the interests of the people it serves.

"No government power can be abused long. Mankind will not bear it."

- Samuel Johnson

Undeterred by this, the message sent by Bush and his kaballistic administration to the people of New Orleans, the people of America, and the people of the world via his Katrina rhetoric, is clear: "Do not dare endeavour to help yourselves. We are the providers for your appetites, your moral and sensual needs, and you must wait, dying, watching your children and loved ones dying around you, until we come."

Those in New Orleans who follow orders to flock to the great dome of salvation are rewarded with tens of thousands more hungry, thirsty people to contend with and nowhere near enough food and water to go round. In their efforts to centralise control and distribution of essential resources, the authorities are contributing to a dramatic worsening of an already catastrophic situation.

Aside from the immediate challenges posed by the recovery operation, the words of Mr Bush are falling on the deaf ears of a starving population. Those that hear him still aren't buying it. On a grander scale, the people of America aren't buying it, and the watching peoples of the world aren't buying it either.

Bush and the U.S. Administration however are 'buying it', and they're buying it big-style on a daily basis to the tune of $187 million for the invasion, continued occupation and globally managed heist of Iraq and its geological and human resources.

As Bush appears on the world's television screens forcing platitudes through an angst-filled smile, almost as fake as the presidency he stole and the administration behind which he hides, rest assured that it is not empathy with the pain and suffering of those Americans whose lives have been devastated by Katrina, but instead the angst of knowing that his deluded vision of an omnipotent and omnipresent America is just that, a deluded vision.

With the arrival of Katrina on American shores and America's ongoing failure to remedy the situation, Bush's vision has been emasculated and exposed by nothing more than a whim of Mother Nature.

No bombs. No terrorists. Not even any Muslims to blame. Perhaps Al Qaeda will rush-release a badly-dubbed tape of a New Orleans Muslim claiming that the Winnowing Winds of Allah were sent to bring devastation to the infidels and that the chief infidel would last be seen pleading with the people to maintain their unnatural dependence on the state that sends its troops to ensure suffering victims endure their suffering still further while waiting for help that isn't arriving.

The Bush adminstration has for five years failed the American people and in the aftermath of Katrina it is failing on a scale that will not be tolerated for very long. More and more rapidly, and in ever greater numbers than before, the people of America are recognising that it might be time to bring a bit of freedom and democracy to their own country before attempting to export it anywhere else.

The people know it and the administration knows it and the fear fills the face of the President.

Throughout history, men far greater than George Walker Bush have spoken words of knowledge, wisdom and insight that resonate more loudly today than any of the monotonous monologues that Bush and his team of charlatans scriptwriters could hope to invent. One such man is Malcolm X whose words Bush may not have heard but which have certainly been listened to at some level in the corridors of power:

"I believe there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those doing the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the system of exploitation. I believe that there will be that kind of clash, but I dont think it will be based on the colour of the skin."

This is about as much information as I have seen regarding the "BOMBS" from the 21st July events. I have not seen this information posted or discussed anywhere else yet so you consider yourself honoured Mr Antagonist.

As Mr Issac's Italian lawyer had stated shortly after his arrest in Italy that the "BOMBS" were not capable of destruction and were in fact only detonators in an inert substrate; as indeed was orginally reported by the BBC in the first hour or two after the events.

b) the "BOMB" featured a battery with wires attached to the detonator substrate.

c) the detonator substrate consisted of TATP, a homemade explosive.

Whilst having no formal qualifications in explosives chemistry or demolitions, my 'scientific intuition' tells me that flour and hair lotion are not suitable for use in bombs as they do not feature any explosive properties at all, ever.

So as was originally reported, briefly by the BBC, these were not bombs as such, merely detonantors embedded in a mix of flour and a tub of Stu-Stu-Studio Line.

The only people who could possibly have been hurt are the "SUICIDE BOMBERS" themselves, and then only if they got caught in the tube doors when they were closing or perhaps gave themselves a papercut when reading the Metro. Maybe if they were wearing flowing robes they could have got caught in the escalator, whichever way - the "bombs" would not have hurt them.

THESE WERE NOT SUICIDE BOMBERS, THEY COULD NEVER HAVE BEEN.

HAMDI ISSAC, JUDGES: WAS INVOLVED IN PREPARATION OF BOMBS

(AGI) - Rome, Italy, Aug.17Hamdi Issac's support to the setting up of the - failed - London bombings of 21 July was "significant", reports the ruling of the judges panel which authorised today his extradition to the UK. "The arrested - points out the Court - not only attended meetings aimed at planning the event, and was also involved in the preparation of the actual bombs, following Muktar's orders, placing the detonator". Besides, Issac "chose the place and the means of public transport where the explosion was supposed to occur". Regarding the bomb preparation method, the Ethiopian - wrote the judges - said that it consisted in "using plastic containers, putting flour, hair lotion, nails, nuts and bolts and attach everything to a primitive device featuring a battery, which included a powder to act as a detonator once it had been manually attached to some electric wires". Issac has always said the bombs were not made to injur people, but to be a "demonstrative act".

The European arrest warrant, reports the Court, "includes a preliminary appraisal of the bombs found in the four places chosen for the explosions of 21 July, which states that TATP or HMTD explosive material was used for the detonation mechanism. Both these materials are peroxide-based". The requesting judge pointed out that "the contained material has explosive properties. A sample of the white powder found on the detonator of the non-exploded bombs, found in the gardens of Little Wormwood Scrubs, was identified as TATP, which, as HMTD, is often used for bombings, since they are easy to prepare, using widely marketed products". (AGI)

"[in] real art nothing is accidental. It is mathematics. Everything in it can be calculated, everything can be known beforehand.

The artist knows and understands what he wants to convey and his work cannot produce one impression on one man and another impression on another, presuming, of course, [they are] people on one level.... At the same time the same work of art will produce different impressions on people of different levels. And people from lower levels will never receive from it what people of higher levels receive.

An eye-witness to the Number 30 bus explosion in Tavistock square is quoted on the BBC web site:

I reached Euston station by Silverlink county at close to 9am, walked to Euston square tube to find police blocking it. So went back to Euston central again to access Euston underground, cops evacuating there too, saying Liverpool St possible explosion. So took no 59 bus to reach Holborn.

As the bus passed a bit after Tavistock square park, we heard an explosion - something like a big bang , sort of muffled inside a metal container.

We looked back from the upper deck - saw a huge metal scrap thing on the road, with a few fumes coming out, someone was on the road trying to pull something out of it.

All of us panicked and hurried to get out of bus, people losing it completely. I am lucky to be writing this. This was the first time I smelt death so near.

Your starters for ten, confer all you like: The 'players' with pale blue shirts, closely cropped hair and easily identifiable brightly-coloured rucksacks, one of whom is rather busy on the phone (blue rucksack, photos 2 and 3, remaining fairly motionless and not overtly helping anyone), and the other of whom can't wait to get in and coordinate the recovery process (yellow rucksack, photos 2 and 3, running, looking around and not overtly helping anyone). Who are all the people on the top deck seemingly undamaged by a blast that blew the back half of the bus and the roof clean off the bus? Who is the person on the top deck making a phone call despite still being on the top deck of a bus that exploded some moments previously? Oh, and lest we forget, Kingstar-the-controlled -demolition-company van is there in all it's glory too.

If what happened to the lorry in the real Hydrogen Peroxide explosion photo had happened to the Number 30 bus in Tavistock Square on 7 July, The Antagonist suggests that there probably wouldn't be quite so many people left standing on the top deck, or even alive anywhere in the vicinity, much less standing around up there making phone calls.

Anyone care to hazard a guess at who all the non-uniform folk all over the crime scene of a terrorist attack in London might be?

A major terrorist attack in Central London, the exploded bus has been cleared of survivors and injured but there is still no police cordon to be seen. At the stage of the day this photo would have been taken, the whole world had been alerted to the notion of bombs in London but this, apparently, wasn't sufficient reason for the police to establish a cordon around the area to preserve the integrity of any evidence. Then again, maybe that was the point. Or, maybe, the incident response plans Peter Power penned need some further refinement and revision.

Last, but not least.

Who are these people? None of them look like they have just survived a bomb blast, no debris, no blood, no cuts, nothing. The lady in blue to the top right of the first photo seems to be rather amused by something considering a terrorist attack has just occurred. The Antagonist doesn't recall anyone that survived the incidents on the trains looking quite that amused after their ordeals.

The cluster of people in the lower photo (a close up from the top photo as the eagle-eyed reader will already have noticed) appear to be anxiously looking about for someone or something, particularly the grey-haired man who seems rather more keen than the others as he cranes his neck left to see over the heads of everyone in the first photo and then to the right in the close-up. He looks very concerned about something but he definitely doesn't look like he's just stepped out of a bomb blast. His face is disconcertingly familiar too.

In the words of P.D. Ouspensky:

This is real, objective art.... An objective work of art.... affects the emotional and not only the intellectual side of man.

Hang on to your hats folks.... remember all that Lockerbie/Libya stuff from a while back? Well it wasn't Libya that did it and all those who said so at the time, and a whole bunch of conspiracy theorists, were right!

THE CIA MANUFACTURED THE EVIDENCE TO IMPLICATE LIBYA

Yes, really! So says a retired senior Scottish police chief who testified that the CIA planted the fragment of circuit board crucial in convicting a Libyan for the 1989 mass murder of 270 people.

Does anyone have the energy to muster even a degree of surprise any more?

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND -- (OfficialWire) -- 08/29/05 -- A retired Scottish "police officer has come forward to provide a signed statement corroborating the belief that vital evidence used to convict Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi for mass murder in 2001 was fabricated.

...

While the identity of the retired officer has not yet been made public, it is known that he was a member of the Association of Chief Police Officers Scotland (ACPOS), and therefore achieved the rank of assistant chief constable at least.

In 2003, a retired CIA officer made a statement to Al-Megrahi's lawyers in which he said evidence against their client had been planted.

It has long been rumored that the key piece of evidence, a fragment of circuit board from a timing device that implicated Libya, had been planted by U.S. agents for political reasons.

In September 2003, the UN Security Council lifted sanctions against Libya, which allowed the release of up to $2.7 billion to the families of the 270 people killed. Libya paid each family $8 million in compensation and was scheduled to pay a further $2 million to each of the victims' families. But because the U.S. State Department refused to remove Libya from a list of states thought to support international terrorism Libyan officials, in April 2005, refused to make the final payment for each family.

Perhaps Libya will now seek to recover the initial $2.1 billion paid since it appears they were fit up for the job. [Baou.com]

Who? What? When? Why? How?

Newly unsealed court papers charge that Tarik A. Hamdi, an Iraqi-born American citizen and a former resident of Herndon, Virginia (a suburb of Washington, DC, and a hotbed of intelligence-connected groups), and a direct and key American contact for Osama bin Laden, is now a member of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry in Ankara, Turkey....Hamdi, former CIA counter-terrorism chief Vince Cannistraro, and Pakistani journalist (and ISI "favorite") Rahimullah Yusufszai were among the few go-betweens with bin Laden who set up interviews with bin Laden for American journalists, such as John Miller (now a Commanding Officer in the Los Angeles Police Department's Counter-Terrorism Bureau). During this period, Cannistraro, Miller and Yusufszai worked for ABC News. Hamdi also had a working relationship with recently deceased ABC anchorman Peter Jennings, who tapped Hamdi as a Middle East expert more than once.

As noted by Chaim Kupferberg, "Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism chief, provided covert aid to the Afghani mujahadeen in the late 80s, as well as supervised CIA operations with the contras.

He was also a point man in the notoriously circumspect investigation at Lockerbie." [OnlineJournal]

The Antagonist wonders what degree of involvement the CIA had in London on 7/7 and during the rest of July. Until we find out, The Antagonist very much hopes that the retired police chief who testified that the CIA planted the Lockerbie evidence isn't partial to walking in the woods.

Nail A Nobody™

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Antagonista Zeitgeist

"The country's biggest force, the Metropolitan police || believe that large sections of the population have become increasingly politicised, and there is a growing sense that the current restrictions on demonstrations are too light." - The Guardian

"The bombers scattered identity and bank cards around the Tube carriages they targeted before placing their rucksacks on the floor and setting off the explosives. || Although they were damaged to some extent, they [the ID and bank cards] did not show the damage that would be expected if they were on the body of the bomber or in the rucksack, suggesting that in each case they had been deliberately separated by some distance from the actual explosion. || The bombers were not wearing the rucksacks at the time of the explosions, but had instead put them down on the floor of the bus and Tube trains." - The Telegraph

"But it [de Menezes execution MPS trial] was nearly derailed after an armed police raid on the home of a juror's ex-boyfriend in the second week of the case, in which the female juror's baby was taken away." - Daily Mail

"It is no exaggeration to say that at the time of the arrest there was not one shred of admissible evidence against Barot. The arrest was perfectly lawful - there were more than sufficient grounds, but in terms of evidence to put before a court, there was nothing. There then began the race against time to retrieve evidence from the mass of computers and other IT equipment that we seized. It was only at the very end of the permitted period of detention that sufficient evidence was found to justify charges. I know that some in the media were sharpening their pencils, and that if we had been unable to bring charges in that case, there would have been a wave of criticism about the arrests. Barot himself of course eventually pleaded guilty last year and received a 40-year sentence." – DAC Peter Clarke

The 7/7 narrative: "06.49: The 4 men .... each put on rucksacks || 07:14: .... The 4 then put on their rucksacks...." More....

"The [21/7] jury were told a further charge of conspiracy to cause explosions likely to endanger life, faced by each man, was now being left off the indictment." – BBC

"Tony Blair and his family suffered the indignity of having to sleep on the floor and eat an Indian takeaway out of foil cartons on their last night in Downing Street, insiders have revealed." – The Times